VI: Trouble Sleeping

"Iliana, for the love of God, how many times do I have to tell you not to overstock the wine glasses? I almost knocked a dozen of them on the floor!"

My least favorite bartender -- person, whatever -- flipped her bottle blonde hair off her shoulder and stared daggers at me like she was bold enough to start something. "God, Syd, it's not that big of a deal. I'm not going to run to the back every time someone orders a chardonnay because your is too big to keep from knocking into the shelves. Get some liposuction and some and maybe you'll stop being so uptight."

My clipboard was on the ground and I already started snatching the chandelier earrings out of my lobes when Baek suddenly materialized behind her, holding his palm up to signal me to stop and saving this from the whooping of a lifetime. "Miss Reyes, you're free to go. Miss James and I will finish closing."

"Oh, thank you Mr. Baek!" Iliana squealed in that syrupy - voice of hers before hightailing it out of the kitchen door, none the wiser that her life almost ceased to exist. I rolled my eyes while bending down and picking up the clipboard, intent on stewing in my bad mood and ignoring him so he'd go back to the office. Unfortunately, he took the other list and started where Iliana left off, working in silence with the world's most awkward air around us. At least until he said, "I have a piercing."

My pen scribbled and scratched off the page. "What?"

"I owed you an embarrassing anecdote," he continued while purposefully avoiding eye contact, "I've had it since I was sixteen. Got properly pissed during a night out and let McKenzie do it in his kitchen. His mum took one look at the blood on the floor and banned me from their house for a month."

"What!" I squeaked loudly and watched a shy smile appear in his profile. "Where is it?"

Baek cleared his throat and his list hit the counter with a smack. "I'll show you mine if you show me yours." Without waiting for me to answer he turned, long fingers ing his shirt to his stomach, and when his hand pulled the material to the right I was rewarded with the view of a small silver hoop through a pale pink . I just stared at it, unable to come up with any kind of response. Just like that it disappeared behind his shirt.

What the is happening? "Mine is...I mean, it isn't anywhere you can easily see."

He stepped in front of me as I retreated until my lower back hit the edge of the bar top. I stopped breathing when his hand dropped onto the inside of my thigh, gently nudging my legs apart while his eyes stared through me. His fingers disappeared up my skirt, a light eyebrow arching slightly when his skin hit the beginning trail of arousal that was sliding out of me. "So wet for me already? Such a dirty girl."

"Yes." My hands did their own exploring, quickly finishing the job on his shirt and pushing it down his shoulders, scraping my fingernails over his pale skin so hard angry red trails followed in their wake. The pads of his fingertips carefully ran the length of my slit until he found my own silver ring pierced trough the delicate skin of my oral hood. "We should go home," I whispered.

"No. I want you here, my sweet little ." His free hand made quick work of sliding the elastic band from my hair and wasted no time pulling my hair back so hard tears immediately sprang in my eyes. "You know by now, I take you where I want you. And since you were so bold as to suggest otherwise, I'm going to take you upstairs and keep you gagged on my as I count your drawer. May return a few phone calls overseas as well. So help me if you so much as make a single sound, when we do return home I'll ensure you won't sit down comfortably for a week."

"Oh God," I whined and his hold on my hair tightened. "Please."

"There's my good girl," he praised gently as his fingers plunged inside my soaked, aching . Only he recognized my pleas not as a sign to stop, but as the permission for him to lead me to the dark, twisted place he and he alone could take me to. "Get used to begging. You'll be doing a lot of it tonight."

The sharp knock at the door startled me awake, leaving remnants of my dirty dream behind my eyes. After a grueling session at the gym I came home at seven in the morning and couldn't do anything else but pass out face down on the couch. With a loud snarl I pushed myself up and off until I was standing and groggily made my way to open it. I barely had the strength to stand let alone ogle Baek in casual wear again. "'Sup, Boss."

"Good morning Miss James. I wanted to inform you the construction workers will